Terran Federal Republic
The Congress of Mankind, the de facto government of Humanity, is one of the significantly younger powers in the Milky Way. Since man walked on two feet and stared up at the stars, humans have always envisioned themselves as masters of the heavens, seemingly embarking on endless settlement of the Great Beyond. However, that entry came at a huge price, as thousands of years of struggle separated humanity and their apparent galactic destiny. After nearly seven thousand years of cataclysm and reconstruction, the first human colony ships exploded out of Earth's atmosphere, and made for nearby systems to spread the dominions of the Congress. With this expansion came the first contacts with the Ataliax Empire and Koboln Syndicate, with the Galactic Union being formed shortly after. Humanity quickly assumed their new galactic responsibility, unknowing of how massive that responsibility would truly be. =Human History= GD 2000 to 2106 At the turn of the millennium, Earth had entered a new age. An age of access and connectivity swept over the planet, and yet, so did the threat of war. Humanity, emerging with its guard down after the end of the Cold War in the 1990’s, had no idea that it was heading toward its own destruction. The proliferation of nuclear weapons, and their availability around the globe, coupled with increased natural disasters, famines, rising sea levels, and rises in global temperature literally heated up disputes between Earth’s nation-states. Yet, the problems were concealed by a global shield of ignorance. Innovations in crude technologies only furthered this ignorance, as it consumed people’s attentions not toward world affairs, but to what happened at a party last night, or what someone ate for dinner. By the time anyone realized what was going on, it was too late. No amount of effort from neither singular nation-state, nor international organization could stop the coming storm. It need not matter who launched first, but that nuclear weapons were exchanged. In about an hour after impact, 70% of Humanity perished from the sheer weight of nuclear exchange. When 2100 became 2101, another 20% had died from residual illness directly related to the nuclear exchange. In another 5 years, a final 5% more perished from the ‘Food Wars’ – human populations battling one another for radiation free food. In total, 9.5 billion humans perished from the Nuclear War, as it came to be known, leaving only 500 million people to rebuild: approximately the population of Earth around 1500 AD. However, not all was lost. With the clever foresight of a few individuals, everything that humanity had done, was doing, or wanted to do was stored in the ‘Great Library.’ Located in Thule, Greenland, it contained Humanity’s genetic code (meant for aliens to rebuild humanity in case of a mass extinction event), frozen seed samples of necessary plant life, and the genetic codes of every Terran animal species, many of which just prior to the Nuclear War were extinct. The Great Library was Humanity’s only chance to recover what had been lost in the thoughtless decisions of several leaders, putting their national pride before the entire human race. On the tympanum over the portal to the underground complex displays a hollowing statement: Fear the intent of the thoughtless Man. It would one day become the guiding statement of humanity ascending from its own foolishness. GD 2106 to 2200 It is unfortunate to remark that no amount of data stored within the Great Library of Thule would be able to restore the lost lives in that single cataclysmic event. Within a single hour, everything most humans knew and understood was wiped out. What emerged from this new post-apocalyptic world was the Global Dark Age – a general collapse of civilization not seen since the Fall of Rome in 476 A.D. Where governments once stood, law devolved in small organized bands, essentially nomads, travelling around the desolate landscape, taking what they needed at the expense of anyone who resisted. These groups, known as Outriders, usually conflicted with the Settlers, or groups that founded small towns in areas with little to no radiation. A third group does emerge, but only for a short time, and they are known as the Migrants. After the decade long nuclear winter, the people left alive packed their bags and moved toward the equator in hopes of reaching better climates during the ensuing ice age. The Settlers welcomed these groups, as they provided more manpower to growing communities that needed it. The Outriders opposed the Migrants, stealing from them as they moved about. However, in the first one hundred years after the Nuclear War, the swelling Settler communities forced the Outriders to assimilate, as the last bullets and burnable gasoline were expended. Once again, however, this post-collapse tumult cost more lives – shrinking Earth’s population to a mere 200 million people worldwide. The success of the Settlers proved to be Earth’s last hope. The formation of communities and division of labor meant that humans were restarting civilization, just as it started over 12,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. As the settlements began to grow and recuperate from the previous hundred years of chaos, a strange society emerged, similar to the past, yet with flares of the society forced to rebuild after the Nuclear War. People were rediscovering proper farming and hunting equipment while they scanned the radio waves for signs of life past their horizon. People turned to religion while others scorned it, believing their God(s) had abandoned them. People, for the first time, conceived of not belonging to a nation or culture, but of the human race, and retained the scope of the world while clinging to their land, hoping that the crops wouldn’t be contaminated with radiation. It was the most important cultural thing to be passed down through the ensuing ages – humans, instead of turning in, turned out and did not forget the world they left behind. Humans were planning to never to make the same mistake again. GD 2200 to 3500 While Humanity retained the correct philosophy in emerging out of the Nuclear War, their technology was not progressing as fast as predicted. The Great Library of Thule, designed for an immediate recovery, suffered a core systems failure that wiped out the DNA sequences of the harvest animals as well as the seed samples – only Humanity’s knowledge survived, the key elements in which civilization could still be salvaged. In this epoch of Human history, adequate agricultural advancements were made to feed an entire new class of urban dwellers. These new laborers would enrich the culture of these newly emerging cities, as well provide a stagnate middle class that could specialize in certain tasks, such as gunsmithing, metalworking, construction, and many other tasks based on the current availability of resources. The first thousand years since the Nuclear War also saw the first true governments arise, with the original governments of the rising communities were just collectivist anarchies or direct democracies with no leader to administrate, or in some cases, legislate. With the stratification of society according to economic status, leaders did arise. However, unlike Mesopotamia, many of them did not rule as monarchs or dictators mostly in part due to the passed on democratic tradition from generation to generation post-Nuclear War. This ‘democratic tradition’ breeding amongst the reemerging population of humanity would serve as the benchmark for the future of Earth, and how it would be governed once civilization had recovered. GD 3500 to 5000 Humanity, in this post collapse world, had two choices; be guided by innovation to return to greatness of stagnate in this life their ancestors gave them. Fortunately, the burgeoning populations of Earth choose innovation over stagnation, and the first innovators, looking around them, saw what they once had, and strove to rebuild. At the end of this next thousand year period, lights began to turn back on, sewers were reactivated, and other amenities to increase the standard of living were reinvented or restored. While life was far from where it once was, it was heading in the right direction. Medical technology was almost non existent. Yet, with these setbacks, Humanity was starting to realize as goal as it became more and more interconnected with the radio. Being able to communicate with people across the world was an amazing feat, as it gave scope of what was happening in other settlements. In short, the idea of the global village was returning, even though the methods of travel were not yet there to develop it. In this period of trials, humans began to submit themselves to larger governments. In effect, a crude feudal system erupts, with democratic settlements subservient to larger democratic settlements, and so forth. Essentially, the first human states are formed, though they are no larger than a province of a modern country. Such entities took on the names of the regions they lived in, even though the previously existing infrastructure is now entirely overgrown or destroyed. With these new-found states comes war, and humanity’s time-honored perfection of it. Immediately states squabble over territorial boundaries – fighting over grazing lands for their animals of fertile lands for their crops. What became of these wars created a class of permanent soldiers, something not seen in 3000 years. This social stratum of warriors would prove useful in the coming years, as Earth would yet again be in crisis, and it would take a renewed military organization to pick up the pieces yet again. GD 5000 to 5010 Scholars, revisiting this era in history, believed humanity, in 500 years, would be at an adequate level to open up the Great Library and restore civilization to what it once was, and be better off with a greater sense of purpose for the human race, as the story of the Nuclear War is still very real for each generation. Yet, something would damn Earth yet again. It would not be a renewed nuclear cataclysm or war, but something across the gulf of space. Earth was to be visited by an interplanetary missile – an asteroid. Called the Bactrian Warhead, the six mile across rock plummeted into Central Asia, creating a massive crater between the Caspian and Aral seas, forever joining them to make the-now Bactrian Sea. However, the human populations were once again thrown into chaos. Another nuclear winter was initiated, caused by the radiation and debris released into atmosphere, ushering in another ice age. Unfortunately for humans, the world slipped back down in the Global Dark Age. Humanity was once again on the precipice. Everything that had been accomplished before was ruined. Humans had come along so far for nearly nothing. Sizeable towns fell upon themselves for supplies and entire cultures of people were uprooted, forced into nomadic lives as their ancestors had three thousand years ago. Yet, this cataclysm was different. With the widespread usage of radio, different groups of people were able communicate with one another to find habitable locations and safe areas away from the chaos of the more disorganized peoples. A sort of global network was created, which greatly reduced the casualties. Coupled with military efficiency, the human populations found themselves better off than they were. Even though they had lost nearly all the progress from the previous millennia, they had finally come together in a sort of central governance, something that would last until the discovery of the Great Library. From the charred cinders arose a new humanity, one that had better chance at survival and advancement than ever before. GD 5010 to 8937 Category:Factions